Re: Grammar

On 3 Dec 2003 14:41:23 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric da Red) wrote:

>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>Holger Dansk  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>On 3 Dec 2003 09:28:45 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric da Red) wrote:
>>
>>>>We are talking about the way English is spoken by Americans in the
>>>>entire world.
>>>
>>>Americans don't even speak English the same way within America.
>>>
>>But, the correct pronunciation is the same in dictionaries all over
>>America.
>
>It is written the same (usually), but that doesn't mean it is
>pronounced the same.

According to dictionaries all over America the correct pronunciation is
the same everywhere in America.
>
>Consider:  "Harvard", pronounced "'här-v&rd"
>
>Can you tell by this how to enunciate the 'ä'?
>
>Most of us learned pronunciation rules from dictionaries by means of
>comparisons:  the 'ä' sound is that made from speaking the word
>'arm.'  All that means is that 'ä' should be pronounced the same way
>in 'Harvard' and 'arm' but it does not specify that the correct
>method is the softer 'ahr' sound common in New England or the harder
>'arr' sound from the Midwest.
>
>Then, there's the 'tire' example you mentioned earlier.  In most
>parts of the US, 'tire' is pronounced as a two-syllable word, yet
>the dictionary clearly defines it as one syllable.  It turns out
>those hill people you mentioned earlier were closer to the "correct"
>pronunciation by speaking a one syllable word even though it sounded
>like 'tar.'

Tire, meaning the tire on a car has only one syllable.

Holger

Whatever he was--that robot in the Garden of Eden, who
existed without mind, without values, without labor,
without love--he was not man.

John Galt in Atlas Shrugged